January 2001

CONTENTS

Corporatisation of general practice
Julie Thompson on GPPAC
Evaluation recommends continuation of GPII
Victorian Divisions Conference
Papers
Divisions Quarterly
GP Education on Forum agenda
Star Boards
Accreditation
Some Health Days and Weeks for Februrary and March

Corporatisation of general practice
GPDV has a list of information resources about the corporatisation of general practice on its website. The list is updated regularly and includes:

• links to the RACGP Taskforce's papers (including Guidelines for Dealing with Corporations, and GP Corporatisation – What are the Taxation Issues?)
• a link to the AMA Scoping Paper (endorsed by Federal Council in November)
• GPDV's Policy Issues Paper (No 14)
• the DH&AC Scoping Paper prepared by KPMG last May

You can either download a resource or follow a link to where it can be found on another organisation's web page at www.gpdv.com.au/corp.htm

Julie Thompson on GPPAC
Dr Julie Thompson, until recently Chair of GPDV and now Chair of the national peak body of divisions, ADGP, has been appointed by the Minister as the ADGP representative on the General Practice Partnership Advisory Council. Dr John Aloizos, her predecessor as Chair of ADGP, has been appointed as an independent member on GPPAC.

GPPAC has restructured its sub-committees and taskforces. Julie Thompson will chair the new Primary Health Care Committee, which takes on the activities of the Population Health and IM/IT Sub-Groups, and the EPC Taskforce. The Divisions Taskforce and Divisions Sub-Group have been amalgamated into a Divisions Sub-Committee, which will be chaired by John Aloizos.

Evaluation recommends continuation of GPII
The General Practice Immunisation Incentives (GPII) Scheme has been confirmed as a success by the KPMG evaluation report completed in November last year. The Minister for Health & Aged Care, Dr Michael Wooldridge, has just approved the release of the report and the department is currently seeking comment by 25 January. The first recommendation is:

'The GPII scheme represents a successful example of a population health program delivered by GPs and should continue, with regular reviews, the first of which should take place in 2003'.

Recent DH&AC figures show that the number of practices participating in the GPII has increased by 83.8%, from 3,015 practices in August 1998 to 5,542 practices in November 2000. 92% of practices across Australia are now participating in the GPII.

For more information contact your division, which has a copy of the three-volume report.

Victorian Divisions Conference
Registrations for the GPDV Conference in March – Managing Change: Divisions, GPs and People's Health have flooded in and already are 32% higher than the total attendance at our first conference in November 1999. We are very pleased to find that one third of the registrations are from divisions and SBOs in other states. At present there are only about 100 places left to be filled, so Victorian divisions that have not yet registered need to be quick.

The conference will address two very topical issues – structural change in general practice and the role of GPs in population health. Following the opening by the Victorian Minister, John Thwaites, the first day, Friday 30 March, will feature keynote speakers from Britain, the US, NZ and Australia on structural change in general practice. Concurrent sessions will then examine possible roles for divisions in supporting their members and influencing the direction and pace of change, and define key issues for presentation to the Commonwealth Minister, Dr Michael Wooldridge, during the last session of the day.

The second day, Saturday 31 March, about the role of GPs in population health, will start with a panel discussion with members from general practice, the Joint Advisory Group on GPs and population health, public health, GP research and consumers. Concurrent sessions will then address the role of divisions in enabling GPs to play their part in population health. The Shadow Minister, Jenny Macklin, will be a special guest speaker during lunch, which will be followed by a final plenary session with the discussion by a panel of experts and policy-makers of solutions proposed by concurrent sessions earlier in the day.

As well as GPs and divisions this is a conference for all health professionals and agencies that want to work well with GPs and need to know where general practice is going over the next few years.

For information and registration forms see our website www.gpdv.com.au or call Penny Handley at GPDV on (03) 9341 5200.

Papers
The concurrent sessions offer opportunities to present your ideas and experience and to hear about other successful approaches to change in general practice. We are seeking proposals both from divisions and GPs and also from hospitals and other health care agencies for presentation in these sessions. Send the abstract of about 200 words by January 31 to Christine Macdonald at GPDV c.macdonald@gpdv.com.au. A panel will consider the proposals and notify all those presenting by February 21.

Divisions Quarterly
The mental health issue will be out in February. The theme of the following issue will be IT&IM in general practice.

We seek articles and letters that discuss the ways that divisions can provide support to GPs.

We are also looking for articles that explore the more difficult issues associated with the increasing computerisation of general practice: data collection and data ownership; privacy and confidentiality; the use of IT&IM for GP participation in national programs; the value to GPs of computerising their practices.

Articles should be 1500 to 2000 words long.

We are particularly interested in receiving short articles from GPs who have participated in division IT&IM programs to report on what they have gained, how their practice has benefited, what the ongoing issues are at the practice level. We would like to print three or four different views so it is important that each contribution is brief.

Maximum 750 words.

Due date for articles and letters: Friday 9 March

To Christine Macdonald at GPDV c.macdonald@gpdv.com.au.

GP Education on Forum agenda
The subject of the next Victorian Divisions' Forum on Sunday 18 February will be the impending regionalisation of GP Education and Training. Although divisions appear to have a key role in all current proposals for regionalisation and wish to contribute to the process they have not all been involved directly. The Forum will provide an opportunity for divisions to hear about the proposals from the people and organisations that are developing the plans, and to have direct input to the plans.

The session will focus on the current expectations about divisions' future involvement in the delivery of GP education and training, what supports and resourcing divisions will need, and how divisions are able to make input into decisions now being made at state and national level. It will also seek to clarify the new timelines for the process, given that initial deadlines have not been met and implementation is scheduled to start from 1 January 2002.

The Forum is scheduled for Sunday 18 February at 10 am at the Monash Centre, 7th Floor, 30 Collins Street, Melbourne.

Star Boards
The Forum will be preceded on Saturday 17 February by the first board governance workshop for 2001. The workshop will feature both John Mero, with his Star Boards workshop on governance and the role of directors, and Andrew Tongue, Head of the GP Branch, DH&AC, speaking on the purpose of the Divisions Program, the importance of good governance structures and processes, and the directions for the Program.

The workshop will be valuable for any division board members who were unable to attend last year's Star Boards workshop, and especially for those who are new board members.

Accreditation
All states recorded an increase in registration with AGPAL during the past month. By Friday 15 December, a nationwide 74.3% of all practices had registered. The state breakdown is

Eight divisions, three of them in Victoria, now have 100% of their practices registered. They are Central Wheatbelt, Limestone Coast, Mid North Rural SA, Mallee, Murray Mallee, Sherbrooke & Pakenham, South Gippsland, and Yorke Peninsula.

Seven divisions, two of them Victorian, are in the 90% range - Adelaide Hills, Ballarat, Eastern Goldfields Medical, Greater Bunbury, Otway, Peel/South West and Wagga Wagga.

Four other Victorian divisions are above the state average of 79.1% - Central Highlands, East Gippsland, North West Melbourne and WestVic.

Some Health Days and Weeks for Februrary and March

Februrary

March